Antiterrorism Bill Becomes Law

Surrounded by officials who have spent the last six weeks neck-deep in the war on terrorism, President Bush signed an extensive anti-terrorism bill into law Friday morning. The law, which provides police and law enforcement agencies with broad new powers of tracking and observation, was approved 99-1 in the Senate, and passed handily in the House.

The sole dissenting vote in the Senate came from Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold. "This bill does not strike the right balance between empowering law enforcement and protecting civil liberties," he argued. But while Feingold’s anxieties were echoed among some civil libertarian groups, consensus for the bill is very strong, including among traditionally left-leaning senators like California’s Dianne Feinstein and Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]"This government will enforce this law with all the urgency of a nation at war," the President announced as he signed the bill. Urgency is apparently the order of the day: Attorney General John Ashcroft told reporters Thursday the Justice Department would begin using the new law "immediately."

While its breakneck passage in both houses marks the law as an unqualified success for the President, there was one glitch precluding total victory: The White House lobbied for stronger language than what’s contained in the final bill. House Republicans pushed hard to find a majority for the more stringent bill, but finally told the President they didn’t have the votes, and accepted the altered wording. One of the most significant changes: a clause that terminates the government’s wire-tapping powers in 2005 unless Congress approves them again.

The new law provides for: